Ruling expected in court case
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Willie Walsh: back to the table |
Face to face talks between BA's Willie Walsh and leaders of the Union Unite are due to resume today (December 17) over the threatened 12-day strike by the airline's cabin crew.
In the High Court, Mrs Justice Cox is expected to give her ruling this afternoon on BA's application to stop the walk out from December 22 to January 2 which could hit the Christmas travel plans of about one million people.
The two sides in the bitter dispute over alleged changes in working practices have also come under political pressure to find a solution with prime minister Gordon Brown warning a strike would cause huge disruption to the public and damage to BA.
As talks resume, one of the union leaders has admitted the 12-day stoppage is "probably over the top".
Derek Simpson, Unite's joint general secretary, said the length of the strike had been decided by the union's negotiating team.
But he told a British television station: "That's their judgement of what's needed to bring sense to this. It's probably over the top."
The decision to call the 12-day strike was made after BA cabin crew members of the British Airline Stewards and Stewardesses Association (Bassa), part of the Unite union, voted nine to one in a ballot for strike action on an 80% turn out.
Mr Simpson will be in the Unite team with fellow joint general secretary Tony Woodley meeting Mr Walsh, the BA ceo.
Talks yesterday between the two sides which started just after the High Court hearing into the BA application for an injunction failed to make any progress.
The union wants the carrier to reverse its decision to cut cabin crew from 15 to 14 on long haul flights.
But BA has so far been adamant that it will not back down.
In the High Court Bruce Carr, QC for BA, said there were "serious and substantial irregularities" in the ballot which had allowed people who had left BA to vote on strike action.
Unite will put its arguments to Mrs Cox this morning.
But both sides are now facing mounting anger from politicians and from the public whose holiday plans are threatened by the dispute.
The two sides have been talking for about nine months on the airline's need to cut costs and reduce staff levels to cope with falling demand in the recession.
At one stage the UK Arbitration service ACAS was called in to negotiate a settlement but without success.
The airline announced the equivalent of 3,000 job losses through voluntary redundancies and staff switching from full time to part time work and a two year pay freeze.
But Unite and its cabin crew s group have refused to accept the cut in long haul numbers claiming it is a change in working practice imposed by the airline without negotiation.
The airline denies that the cut is a change in working practices.
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